Matrix of Excerpts from the Declaration of Independence

Directions: You will receive a set of translations of each of the excerpts from the Declaration of Independence listed below. Carefully read each translation and find the excerpt to which it best corresponds on the table below. When you think you have all eight complete have the teacher check your answers. When all eight are correct, copy the translation into the appropriate box.

Excerpt from the Declaration of Independence What the Excerpt Means

Excerpt #1: “When in the course of human events
it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume, among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the laws of nature and of nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the cause which impel them to the separation.”
Excerpt #2: “We hold these truths to be self evident, that all men are created equal; that they are endowed with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”
Excerpt #3: “[T]o secure these [basic] rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed…”
Excerpt #4: “[T]hat whenever any form of government becomes destructive [in protecting rights and responding to the people], it is the right of the people to alter or abolish it, and to institute a new government…”
Excerpt #5: “The history of the present King of
Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and
usurpations, all having, in direct object, the establishment of an absolute tyranny over these States.”
Excerpt #6: “To prove [that England has interfered with colonial rights], let the facts be submitted to a candid world: he has refused to assent to laws the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.”
Excerpt #7: “In every state of these oppressions, we have petitioned for redress in the most humble terms; our repeated petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a tyrant is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.”
Excerpt #8: “We, therefore…solemnly publish and declare, that these united colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent states…”

Translations to use with the Declaration of Independence Matrix

Match each Translation with the excerpt from the Declaration of Independence. Copy the Translation to the correct box, once you are sure it is the correct match.

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Translation A: England has repeatedly interfered with colonists’ rights. In

doing so, it has unfairly ruled over the American colonies.

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Translation B: Individuals have some basic rights that are obvious and

should not be taken away. Freedom, for example, is one of

those rights.

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Translation C: We now consider ourselves to be an independent country.

------Translation D: Here is proof that England had interfered with colonial rights:

the King has not allowed laws that help colonists the most.

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Translation E: When one group of people is going to break away from a

country to form its own nation, then they should explain

why they are doing it.

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Translation F: When a government is taking away the rights of citizens and

is not doing what the people want, then the citizens have the

right to change or replace the government.

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Translation G: Every time we colonists felt we were being treated unfairly,

we wrote the King. He answered by treating us more

unfairly. A ruler who abuses his power should not be able to

rule us.

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Translation H: Governments are formed to make sure people’s rights are

protected. Government power should come from the people.